Category Archives: Logistics

So! I never get around to doing as much with this blog as I intend, but I did just add a bunch of new stuff, because I registered for independent study hours over the summer, doing research on 1912 clothing. It had two components, a big paper and a shorter how-to article for people trying to put together passable 1912-ish clothes for living history (specifically related to a spring course and conference). But I found so many fabulous resources online for the how-to side, and general visual resources, that I ended up doing the how-to component online here, with a little index and a set of posts full of links and summary information. There’s so much incredible information out there on the internet, but it can be shockingly difficult to track down the right stuff – thus why curating the internet, so to speak, is something of a hobby of mine.

The plan is to keep adding links to the 1912 research section, as I find them, and now I’m also thinking of doing something similar for other periods. I have a truly massive collection of bookmarks, and I always wish it was easier to find good sewing and costuming resources, so I think I’ll see what I can do to improve matters. I suspect that keeping my various sewing and costuming resources organized in this form will even make them easier for me to use.

…maybe at some point I’ll even put up pictures of the projects I’ve finished?

Hopefully I’ll be able to do more sewing and more blogging about it! And then I won’t forget how I did things after they’re done. Maybe.

By Ava Trimble

I'm a historian of domestic life, clothing, and needle arts, working on my M.A. in public history at New Mexico State University. I like making connections between cultural history, social history, material culture, and (dare I say it?) experimental archaeology. I believe in studying the history of clothes, sewing, and housework with as much intellectual rigor as any other aspect of history, and I have a vendetta against polyester reproduction garments in museum exhibits.

Join me as I research obscure stitching techniques, strive to create obsessively accurate reproduction clothes, and opine at length about the comfort and functionality of various iterations of undergarments.